prowler1971 | Faire Recap

For most of the civilized world, a three day weekend means an extra day of relaxation, time with friends and loved ones, and most of all sleep.

But for those of us who have committed our lives to Ren Faires, it's just the opposite. (And we wouldn't have it any other way... which explains why we should all be committed.)

As much as I may complain throughout, I truly enjoyed performing over the weekend. It was the usual. GBU Shows and joust shows. But I got to do something I hadn't done in a while. Just stand around and do schtick. It only happened on one day, Sunday. I was ready early. There wasn't a million things to do. And I had about an hour to kill. So what does a ren faire performer do with an hour to kill? Does he relax back stage? Does he chat with old friends? Does he catch a show? No. He goes out to the front gate and does his best to entertain the hell out of those poor folks who have to stand in line to wait to buy tickets.

Now, I'm not the best street performer around. I'm usually a good second banana. And thankfully, there was another performer out there to play with. But I did my best to keep people entertained. One kid found me and told me he'd won at the "line game" and the "gate game". It felt good. I wish I'd had energy all day to keep it up throughout. I actually like doing street work. But because I'd been sick all week and had allowed myself to become sunburned after two previous blistering hot days, I couldn't spend too much time outside. But I entertained, I hawked the GBU show (which continues to get better with each performance) and I felt like I wasn't playing the role of snobby independent. Most of the really good indy acts spend their day on the street, getting people to come to their shows simply by entertaining them. They may take small breaks. Maybe our shows take more out of a person. Maybe I'm lazy. Maybe, sometimes, I stop caring. But Sunday, I felt like I cared again. I felt like I was having fun. I remembered the good stuff.

Oh yeah, Friday and Saturday were good too. For Saturday and Sunday, we had a five horse show and a four horse joust. It was great, outside of the list breaking on Sunday and having to hold the center rope taught. But it just shows that when everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing, and everyone pulls together, no matter what goes wrong, we come through. I have no doubt that Paragon Jousting has the best ground crew of any joust I've ever seen.